Retro monster movie

Rating: 7/10 (11 December 2013)

Guillermo Del Toro's "Pacific Rim" proves yet again that what was one generation's B-movie castoff is another generation's A-movie mainstay. It's a throwback to all those monster movies that played mainly in drive-ins in the 1950s - only here the budget is huge and the stop-motion and claymation techniques used back then have been replaced by the latest in CGI technology.
In this 21st Century edition, giant creatures have broken through the earth's crust and are stomping all over many of the planet's largest coastal cities (see "Godzilla," "The Beast From 20,000 Fathoms," "The Giant Gila Monster," etc. for the roots of these types of films). Humanity's response has been to create an army of giant metallic robots replete with two mind-melded human pilots at the controls (think of it as a WII version of a tank with arms and legs). Charles Hunnam, of "Sons of Anarchy" fame, is the hotshot pilot called out of self-imposed retirement - his co-pilot/brother was lost while on a previous mission - to help rescue the world. Rinko Kikuchi is his new partner with some unresolved issues of her own to deal with. Idris Elba, Charlie Day, Robert Kazinsky, Max Martini and Ron Perlman (I guess we know what the "Anarchy" boys were doing on their time off that year) round out the cast.
The plotting is nothing to write home about, and there is way more jabbering, soul-searching and speechifying than is probably called for in a movie such as this - but the intense action scenes, bits of comic relief, and rally-round-the-flag-boys heroics help the popcorn go down smoothly.